


An Attempt

by bunnybrook



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Experimentation, Human Experimentation, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 04:15:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11866491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnybrook/pseuds/bunnybrook
Summary: Zack tries to escape. Maybe it was a bit too early.





	An Attempt

Zack pounded on the glass of the tank. The sound reverberated through it, deep vibrations bouncing his brain off the insides of his skull. The sound of a slow drain beside him, the crack of a seal being broken had woken him. They could never keep him in as deep of a stasis as they could Cloud.

Cloud. No. They were taking him out again. Zack opened his mouth and shouted, the thick liquid of the tank moving on his tongue. It tasted like when Zack had jokingly licked Materia to get a laugh out of Cloud, like the polluted rainwater in midgar, like tempered steel. But it was rancid. He knew they were trying to kill him.

He slammed his fist on the glass. The liquid slowed his movements so that even his SOLDIER strength couldn’t break through. He just had to get attention, maybe he could get enough time for Cloud to wake up a bit so it was easier on him.

“Shinra pigs!” Zack tried to say. He could barely see what was happening outside. Someone was there, one of the doctors or scientists or whatever they were. Zack could never remember their faces. They all tortured him the same way.

His head was starting to ring from the pounding. He’d get brain damage if he wasn’t too careful. Then again, whatever they were putting in his body was probably damaging him more than anything like this ever would. 

It wasn’t for nothing, he could see the doctor turning towards him. He approached Zack and reset something on the tank. Machinery whirred. The liquid grew colder. Zack jeered at him. He jeered back. 

The weakness that overtook Zack was sudden. Wait. No. Fuck. That wasn’t what he had wanted, they were trying to pull him back into stasis. White light pushed how between his eyes, speckled with the green of the lifestream. He lifted his legs so he was floating and pushed his feet against the door, trying to get it open in one last attempt to help Cloud. The smooth glass on his feet and the rivets digging into his back was something to ground himself with. The stasis they were trying to produce sang to him, offering an end to the pain, just for now. He had to help Cloud.

But he was fading. The taste had changed to anti freeze, scattered on the pavement, whiter than the snow it had turned to mud. One last try, he banged the balls of his feet on the glass. He was going to give up then, like he was supposed to, but he heard the drain open.

Zack snapped his eyes open. Alertness wasn’t coming as quick as he had hoped but the feeling of a current dragging his limp body miles from where he’d collapsed was dissipating. He got his feet under him and let his body be lowered to the floor with the draining water. Holding his own weight felt impossible. He coughed up the liquid from inside his lungs, vomiting it up onto himself as his system adjusted to having air inside of it again. Mucus dripped from his nose, stickying his chin. He shook.

It was a distant echo of a whimper that pulled him back to reality. Cloud. Always Cloud. Cloud was still alive through sheer force of will, his body was so sick. There was so much about him that Zack wanted to protect and cherish. Cloud reminded him of himself, to some degree. Fresh, innocent, couldn’t even make SOLDIER yet. Cloud wasn’t younger than Zack by much but their ranks left an incredible distance between them. All Zack wanted to do was fill it.

Cloud deserved so much better than this. Maybe he reminded Zack that he deserved better too.

Outside of the tank, he could see Cloud collapse onto one of the metal chairs, he was shivering. Zack squinted, watching. He was prepping a needle. He looked at Zack. He flicked the syringe, all for show. He laughed. He was making Zack watch as he made Cloud sicker and sicker, all for some experiment that Zack didn’t understand. 

“C’mon Zack,” he whispered to himself. “You’re SOLDIER First. C’mon, for Cloud.”

He took a deep breath, steeling himself. With a heave, he brought his fist down onto the glass one more time. Bangb. Cracks, finally. He could see Cloud clearly now. Blood dripped from a split in his dry lips. His eyes fluttered. Zack hadn’t seen Cloud fully awake in months.

“I’ll get you, just hang on,” he said. It wasn’t loud enough for Cloud to hear. 

One more punch and the glass shattered. Shards stuck to this sides of Zacks hands. He could barely feel the sting. Free, unrestrained. Even as he leapt out of the tube he was numb to broken glass tearing open the soles of his feet. Obviously the scientist realized he had made a mistake and pushed Zack too far. He was calling someone, rushing for the door. Before he could make it, Zack grabbed him by the shoulder and punched him in the jaw. He heard it break.The scientist fell back onto a table,unconscious. Zack picked up the phone and threw it against the wall. That broke too.

Pausing only to scan his surroundings, Zack made his way to Cloud. Every detail of the room leapt out at him. The empty syringe had fallen to the floor, the doctor had brought a mug of coffee and it was leaving rings on some paper documents. A moth rested on the ceiling next to one of the fluorescent lights. 

Cloud was struggling to look up. Every step towards him pushed glass deeper into Zack’s flesh. He barely noticed the pain, too amped up on adrenaline. The thought ‘protect Cloud’ consumed him.

When he finally made it, he found Cloud’s skin was cold. Zack took him by the shoulders, trying to pull him into a hug. Instead, Zack’s legs collapsed out from unt him and he fell, Cloud coming down on top. This was good enough. Zack adjusted only enough to hold Cloud’s head to his chest.

“Zack?” Cloud mumbled. He looked up. He was squinting, blinking, trying to make his eyes adjust. His pupils were dilating and contracting, rapidly, he probably couldn’t see at all. They strobed between pure blue of Cloud’s eyes, the green of Jenova cells. They had gotten the needle into him.

“Hey,” Zack shushed. “It’s me, Spike. I gotcha.”

“Zack,” Cloud whispered. “Zack, Zack, Zack.”

Cloud had started to shake. He dug his nails into Zack’s skin, the only way he could say ‘Don’t leave me.’ The desperation of the touch hurt Zack more than the blood welling beneath Cloud’s nails. It ached like nothing Zack had ever felt, heartbreak and grief and overwhelming, nauseating helplessness. He had lost so much, now they were taking Cloud too. Cloud repeated Zack’s name like a mantra, a spell to keep him safe.

Zack knew he had to get them out of there. He kept looking at the door, thinking he had to get there. Their clothes were still in a box out of the way, the Buster Sword leaning against the wall beside it.

Get up. Get to the door. Fuck. The sword, at the very least. Fuck clothes. Cloud was almost hyperventilating, he must be in so much pain. Get up, get the sword, get Cloud, get out. One foot flat on the floor, Zack pushed, the momentum helping him up the rest of the way. He looked between Cloud, curled in on himself, and the Buster Sword, a faraway reflection of Zack’s naked body. Every turn of his head made him sick with vertigo. And he took a step, the beginning of agony in his feet.

He heard shouting, distantly. Distant because they were far away? Or distant because Zack was clawing at the fuzz between his body and his mind? Better to assume the worst. Zack took another shuffling step towards the sword. If he could get it before anyone got in here. 

“Zack,” Cloud sobbed. “Help, Zack, please, Zack.”

Zack realized that he’d made the wrong choice. He should have stayed with Cloud to protect him,not gone for the sword. There wasn’t anything the sword could do for him, he’d known he wouldn’t have made it. The sword over Cloud’s human life, the sword over Cloud’s pain. The guilt made Zack gag. He started back towards Cloud, reaching out for him.

The door opened. Zack could have gotten whiplash from how quickly his head snapped up to look. His head spun, he was seeing double. There was no way for him to know how many men were there, where they were going, what they looked like. It was all instinct, now. It was all Zack had. Cloud’s spine and ribs seemed like they wanted to tear out through his skin. 

Without thinking, Zack launched himself at them. The glass in his feet was buried inside of his skin, now. His body hit the men like a stone. He fell to the floor on top of them. Someone got a hand around his wrist, He jerked it away and struggled to get his thumbs into someone’s eyes sockets, squeeze their throat, break their fingers.

“Fuck you!” he screamed. “You fucking monsters!”

Zack saw them lift Cloud off the ground. He was limp. Cloud had been so strong before this, he would have fought just as hard as Zack if they hadn’t destroyed his body. He was a marionette, now. He was tossed back into the tank. The door closed. It sealed. The surge of emotion made Zack still, his heart stopped, his lungs on halt, all of his blood standing still in his veins.

He couldn’t hold back. Rage and pain and anguish came out of him, all in one primal scream that tore the skin from his throat. There were no words, only raw emotion and noise. He couldn’t have formed words if he tried. Inside, he was melting and boiling. He thrashed, he felt himself knock someone back, kick someone away. His head was slammed onto the ground, the impact enough to stun him. Enough for the flesh of his leg to be squeezed, needle in, relax, needle out.

“No,” Zack managed to cry. “Please, no!”

At this point, it only hurt to fight. His surroundings faded in and out. He heard heavy breathing. His own, others, the Planet. He relaxed and melted into the floor.  _ I need to plan _ , he thought. Escape was possible, he knew that now. He had almost made it. He had to wait, to watch, to plan. At the very least he could get Cloud out in one piece.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago but I just really wanted to post something I guess.


End file.
